Saturday, January 4, 2014

Opening Quote:To kill Koschei the Deathless, first you must find his soul, which is hidden in an egg, in a duck in a lead chest buried beneath an oak tree.

"Grimm" came back from winter break rockin’ out with a little ditty called “Lil’ Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Really, who doesn’t love that song? This plays as we watch a woman in a red pullover jogging through the woods. Suddenly, a big bad wolf in a black hoodie comes tearing up behind her. Don’t worry, it’s just Nick enjoying a morning run with his new super Grimm powers. It’s a nice a call back to the very first episode of the series though.

We also find that Juliette has a friend with an abusive husband. Alicia is leaving her husband and coming to stay with the Grimm family. She’ll be perfectly safe right? When she arrives, it doesn’t take long for Nick to figure out that she’s a Fuschbau like Rosalee. He neglects to tell Juliette though. I suppose it might be difficult to find out one of your best friends isn’t who you’ve always thought they were. Let’s hope the new and improved Juliette handles this without whining.
Over in Vienna, Capt. Renard is finishing up his European visit. If you recall, when we left him, he had set up a meeting with Adalind. She finally shows up at the quaint little cafe and they play kissy face for any on lookers as they get down to business. He wastes no time in telling her that he knows about the pregnancy and reminds her that she’s going to need a friend before all of this is over. He then walks his sexy self out the door and returns to Portland.

So, let us get on to the monster of the week, shall we? We are introduced to one Boris Myshkin (played by Mark Ivanir), a Russian visiting the affluent Russian community in Portland to heal the sick and wretched. After a good healing, it’s just natural to want to get your party on. Boris likes to party and vodka. Lots of vodka. He also likes the ladies, which his wife doesn’t like so much. I suspect this will be a problem. At one such party in an opulent Russian restaurant, Myshkin is attacked by another Russian and dragged into the storeroom. Well, it doesn’t go as planned.

Myshkin is a Wesen and quickly wins the altercation by getting green glowing eyes and ugly skin. He uses his powers on the man and then throws him out of the window where he runs away. When a body is found in the restaurant cooler, we find that our attacker killed a waiter for his uniform. Later in his hotel room we see that he has blisters and all sorts of oozing nastiness spreading across his body. Looks like our healer can use his powers to make people sick too. Hmm, so who is really the bad guy here?

Nick and Hank get put on the restaurant case and discover Myshkin’s involvement through the security footage. Since they are dealing with a bunch of foreign nationals, Renard decides to take an active role in the case. This leads all of them to a very nice mansion where Myshkin and his wife, Olga, are staying.

Nick quickly figures out that Myshkin is a Wesen after witnessing a healing. Renard, who also speaks Russian (he’s not just a pretty face y’all), does most of the talking. All they really get out of the visit is that Myshkin’s attacker was Russian and he had a grudge. Also, Larissa the Maid seems terribly fond of Boris if you know what I mean. Obviously, this means Olga is not terribly fond of her.

As they leave the pretty house, Nick describes the healer’s glowing green eyes and transparent skin to Renard and Hank. Renard immediately recognizes it as a Koschei. Apparently he and his mother spent time in Russia and met one who was a healer as well. He went to the Captain’s mother for help with his urges. He was a monk and was having trouble with the celibate thing after a healing. Apparently healing also fires up the libido, so I guess it’s not all Boris’s fault that he’s a womanizer.

Nick and Hank pick up Monroe and head to the Trailer for some research time. They dig through a lot of old Russian documents. Since none of them speak Russian, this doesn’t work out very well. They do discover that Rasputin was a Koschei. They are horribly hard to kill, but one of Nick’s ancestors thinks he succeeded in killing the famous Mad Monk. Renard does his own digging and discovers that Myshkin used to be an assassin.

While all of this research is going on, Myshkin’s attacker has made a phone call to a mysterious someone to tell admit his failure. He tearfully hangs up with an “I love you.” and continues to ooze all over the hotel room. A maid eventually finds him stripped down to his boxers lying in the bathtub covered in open sores. He appears to be dead. Not shockingly, Sgt. Wu gets called to the scene.

Shortly after Nick and Hank get there, the dead guy gets up from the bathroom and falls on Hank. Sadly for the boys, the guy is suffering from radiation sickness and they now have to undergo decontamination. After the group shower, they get some spiffy blue jumpsuits complete with booties. I guess they are gluttons for punishment, because they don’t change before returning to the station. This earns them several jokes and a nice “Ghostbusters” reference.

When confronted with his past as an assassin, Myshkin doesn’t deny it. He claims that he has changed and now heals to make amends for his past. Renard advises him to go back to Russia...quickly. He agrees, but not before one last fling with Larissa the Maid. Surprise! She turns out to be the sister of the man currently dying of radiation poisoning. Our accomplice has been found! Myshkin killed their father years ago and they wanted revenge. The poor girl tried to poison his vodka, but it just made him kind of woozy, so she stabs him with some scissors. During all of this she spills the whole story to him while he tries to tell her that he has changed. The Grimm and gang show up at the mansion as the pair come stumbling down the stairs.

Well, Olga might not be happy with Boris, but she’s not going to just stand by while someone tries to kill him either. She takes her moment as Larissa reaches the bottom of the stairs and reveals her Wesen self to be rather boarish, complete with really big tusks. She knows how to use them too. She grabs the maid and rips her throat out. This makes everyone turn around and point their guns at Olga and head back down the stairs. Renard reaches Larissa first and unsuccessfully tries to stop the bleeding as Hank subdues Olga. Myshkin shows his true nature, and staggers down the stairs to heal the bleeding girl. Olga screams that it will kill him, but he does it anyway, showing that even Wesen can change. He dies with the now handcuffed Olga crying over him.

Nick goes home and we never find out just who was going to jail for what this time. I mean, Larissa did try to kill the man. She should get charged with something shouldn’t she? We end the day with Joe, Alicia’s abusive husband calling. Looks like he will show up next episode to get his wife. She tearfully tries to tell Nick and Juliette that he’s not “normal." Don’t worry Alicia, Nick’s not exactly normal either.

Check out the next episode, "Eyes of the Beholder” when it airs Friday, January 10 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.